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Lac La Biche and Portage to host prominent Alberta art awards

Lac La Biche County and Portage College will host the 2021 Lieutenat Governor of Alberta Arts Awards. The annoucnement was made on Tuesday by the foundation behind the awards.

Lac La Biche County and Portage College will host the 2021 Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Awards.

The announcement was made on Tuesday by the foundation behind the awards. Every two years, the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Awards Foundation hosts alternating ceremonies for the Distinguished Artists Awards and the Emerging Artists Awards.

Lac La Biche County will be hosting the Distinguished Artists Awards in June of 2021. Since the awards began in 2003, there have been 53 Emerging Artist Awards presented and 20 Distinguished Artists Awards.

Lac La Biche artist Amy Malbeuf was presented with an Emerging Artist Award in 2016. Cold Lake artist Alex Janvier — a prominent artist at the Portage College museum of Aboriginal culture — was a recipient of the 2017 Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Distinguished Artist Award. Jane Ash Poitras, another mainstay artist at the college's unique museum, was presented with her Distinguished Artist Award in 2011.

Medals and money

Up to 10 Emerging Artist Awards are handed out every two years.  Winners receive a medal along with a $10,000 cash prize. Distinguished Artist Award winners — up to three are selected each year — receive an award an $30,000 each.

Lac La Biche County Mayor Omer Moghrabi has already commented on the prestige associated with hosting the event.

“By hosting the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Distinguished Artist Awards, we aim to showcase our community’s long history, vibrant multiethnic quilt, tourism opportunities and the legacy of arts in the Lakeland Region. At the same time, we’re raising awareness of the many gifted artists throughout the province,” Moghrabi noted in a statement from the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Award Foundation.

More to come

The mayor and Portage College President Nancy Broadbent are expected to comment further on the announcement following Wednesday's Lac La Biche County Council meeting.


Rob McKinley

About the Author: Rob McKinley

Rob has been in the media, marketing and promotion business for 30 years, working in the public sector, as well as media outlets in major metropolitan markets, smaller rural communities and Indigenous-focused settings.
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